Editorial
I've spent most of the last few weeks in Edinburgh, London, New York and Washington, DC, delivering FreePint Communities of Practice sessions, working on-site with customers on strategic planning and project development, and facilitating roundtable sessions.
During my travels, I've continued to hear variations of this question:
"How can we get our stakeholders to understand the full range of services and value we provide?"
Having spent several years helping FreePint customers try to answer it, and knowing that the key to research success is asking the right question, I now believe this is the wrong one.
We should instead be asking the question:
"How do we help stakeholders see their own business differently?"
During lengthy periods of transit, away from distraction opportunities, I've reflected on the consistent truth which has surfaced in all our research in 2015:
Information expertise is essential to achieving business objectives like efficiency, innovation, and profit... AND most decision-makers are oblivious of the connection.
This is the problem we need to solve. Before we can convince stakeholders that our expertise is relevant, they have to recognise this fundamental problem - the disconnect between their vision and the role they think information plays in achieving it.
Our current Topic Series, "News, and Other Commodities" (Oct-Dec 2015) looks at the problem through the lens of ubiquitous information that is essential to good business but is undervalued by decision-makers and end users alike.
In the new year "Topic Series" is being renamed as "Research Focus". Strategic Alignment of IS and IT" (Jan-Mar 2016), focuses on two essential functions that should be operating together but too often are at odds.
Through "Research Focus" we will continue to produce practical guidance and resources, now with closer attention to this question of changing the mindset of stakeholders' documentation of success around re-positioning information expertise.
You will no longer need to re-register every calendar quarter, as this twice-monthly FreePint Newsletter will provide your window into what we're covering. Please forward this copy to a colleague and encourage them to register for free.
Robin Neidorf
Director of Research, FreePint
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